Groups of teachers and students expressed concern about the discontinuation of the Senior High School (SHS) Program in government-funded universities and colleges nationwide.

“Haphazardly discontinuing the Senior High School program in State and Local Universities and Colleges, without guaranteeing improved access and quality of our education system, will lead to economic displacement for our teachers and threaten our learners right to accessible and quality education,” the Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) and Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) said in a joint statement issued on Jan. 4.

In a separate statement, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines also warned against stopping the financial subsidy for SHS or Grades 11 and 12 in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs).

“With the current shortages in the basic inputs in our public basic education, the order to stop SUCs and LUCs from offering SHS will worsen the shortages of classrooms, learning materials and equipment and will surely result to more overloading of our teachers,” ACT said.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) instructed SUCs and LUCs to discontinue offering the SHS Program citing that there was "no longer a legal basis" to fund the program since the transition period for the K to 12 program is already over.

READ:

https://mb.com.ph/2024/1/2/ched-confirms-discontinuation-of-shs-program-in-su-cs-lu-cs

Drawbacks, displacement

For TDC and Spark, while SUCs and LUCs are mandated to offer the SHS program only during the K-12 transition period, “we fear that mechanically following suit without serious consideration of the drawbacks on education stakeholders will lead to another learning crisis leaving 17,700 students affected by dislocation and hundreds of thousands more by imminent congestion.”

The groups then urged national agencies on education to “extend” the K to 12 transition period to take into account the time and resources needed to ensure.

ACT, for its part, raised concern that even for 2024, “not much new item” for SHS teachers will be created and warned that it “will not even close the current gap.”

The group also warned against using such “stop-gap” measures like asynchronous classes, Saturday classes, or home study programs that are “far from the quality” of real face-to-face classes.

ACT then urged the Marcos government to “increase funding” to public education gearing towards the resolution of the massive shortages in the inputs.

“Further, the Marcos administration should instead support our LUCs and SUCs in offering SHS programs rather than shutting it down,” ACT said.